1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ore extraction and, more particularly, to thermal fragmentation mining for extracting ore from narrow-veins.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For many years, mine operators have worked on various ways to mechanize mining. They have succeeded in many cases where the ore volume was sufficient to justify the high capital costs of equipment and the required infrastructures. Narrow-vein deposits, for their part, presented a greater challenge in terms of mechanization. Selective mining methods, such as shrinkage, were replaced by using a mechanized long-hole mining method. Despite all the efforts put into place, success stories remain rare. The difficulty in controlling wall stability following blast vibrations often resulted in high dilution, preventing narrow-veins extraction from being economically viable. Indeed, veins of small cross-section have in the past been uneconomical to mine since with the current mining methods a small vein necessitates the removal of a large quantity of waste rock on either sides of the vein. A large quantity of ore must then be processed to retrieve the small quantity of desired minerals.
Therefore, a great number of known narrow veins of mineralization are not presently mined since mining of such minerals is not economically viable due to the limitations of the present mining methods.